Posted 11:34 AM by Robert

The Fall Of The House Of Eisner XIII: Fractious Board?

The New York Times reports:

George J. Mitchell ... sees his main job as negotiating among factions of unhappy investors, other board members and Michael D. Eisner.

Negotiating among other board members?

What the heck is this supposed to mean? All dissident directors have already been forced off the Board. Roy Disney? Gone. Stanley Gold? Gone. Andrea Van de Kamp? Gone.

The board does have a couple of new faces. And the inside word is that those new faces have brought at least some new perspectives - but there are no reports of a fractious board. This is, after all, a board that unanimously appointed Mr. Mitchell as Chairman within an hour of 24% of shareholders withholding their votes for his own reelection.

On a separate point: While it has been widely reported (including here) that 43% of Disney shareholders withheld a vote for Michael Eisner, it is also worth noting that a majority (53%) of the shareholders actually participating in the Disney shareholder meeting withheld a vote for Mr. Eisner (who, of course, ran unopposed).